Chapter 3 A night of passion

Her breasts sprang free, soft and perfect, the tips already hard and trembling with need.

He lowered his head and took the right one into his mouth, sucking hard, his teeth grazing the sensitive peak.

"Ah!" she arched her back like a bow, her fingers tangling desperately in his hair. "Harder... rougher..."

He released her with a wet pop and moved his hand down her trembling stomach.

She was absolutely soaking-so wet that two of his fingers slid in effortlessly the second he touched her.

Inside, she was scorching hot and impossibly tight, clenching around him like she was trying to pull him deeper into her soul.

"Who the fuck drugged you?" he growled, adding a third finger and stretching her deliberately.

She just shook her head frantically, hair spilling across the pillow as she let out broken, desperate sounds. "I don't... know... please... just take me..."

"Answer me," he pulled his fingers out and smeared her wetness across her inner thigh. "If you don't talk, this stops right here."

"I want you!" she practically screamed, her legs wrapping around his waist like a vice. "Just you! Right now!"

Good enough. He spread her legs wider, the head of his cock pressing against her drenched entrance, not pushing in yet. "What do you call me?"

Her eyes were completely glazed, but the word that rolled off her tongue was like molten fire: "Mate..."

That single word destroyed him. He slammed his hips forward and buried himself inside her in one brutal thrust.

She was so tight it made his vision blur, gripping him deep and desperate.

He grabbed her hips and started moving, each thrust hitting her deepest spots, his balls slapping against her skin with obscene, wet sounds.

The room filled with the symphony of their bodies-slick, rhythmic pounding and her shattered moans.

"Fuck..." he panted, leaning down to bite her shoulder. "Squeezing me like a goddamn vice... you just want to be completely ruined, don't you?"

"Yes... yes..." she babbled, her nails clawing into his back. "Deeper... Mate... deeper..."

He flipped them over so she was on top.

When she lowered herself onto him, she threw her head back, a satisfied, guttural sound escaping her throat.

A sliver of moonlight finally broke through, glistening on her breasts as they bounced with her frantic movements, sweat tracing a path down the valley between them.

He reached up and kneaded them roughly, twisting her nipples between his fingers.

"Do it yourself," his voice was hoarse and barely human. "Take everything you fucking need."

She rocked her hips in a desperate, uneven rhythm, her ass slapping against his thighs with wet, heavy sounds.

Her wetness dripped down his shaft, soaking a dark stain into the expensive sheets.

Watching the pure ecstasy destroying her face, he suddenly flipped her onto her back again, hooking one of her legs over his shoulder.

This angle went deeper than ever before. She screamed, her toes curling, her walls clenching around him in intense, rhythmic pulses.

"I'm close..." she cried out. "Mate... together..."

He crushed his mouth against hers, swallowing every desperate moan.

The moment he came, he bit down on her lower lip until it bled-the taste of iron and sweat exploding in his mouth.

She spasmed around him, milking him dry as her own release crashed over his still-throbbing cock.

Their mate bond trembled deep in their souls from the intensity.

Her whole body went rigid, her fingers clawing at the sheets, her throat making choked, gasping sounds like she was hanging on by a thread.

When he finally pulled out, she was still trembling, a complete mess between her legs.

His cum mixed with her wetness, slowly leaking out.

He scooped some up with his fingers and smeared it back across her stomach.

"Don't forget this feeling," he growled against her ear, sliding two fingers back into her still-fluttering entrance, moving them slowly in and out. "From now on, only I get to be here."

She lay limp on the bed, eyes half-closed, chest rising and falling rapidly.

The moonlight had finally shifted to her face, but he still couldn't get a clear look.

He pulled the blanket over them, his arm draped possessively across her waist.

In the darkness, only their bond glowed faintly, warm and alive.

What power did destiny hold, that it could destroy a man in a single night?

Kaius had mocked the stories. Laughed at them, even. The tales whispered in pack houses about mates who found each other across impossible odds. About bonds that broke logic and rewrote hearts with a single touch.

He'd built his empire on ice-cold calculation. Strategic alliances. Ruthless efficiency.

Love was a luxury he couldn't afford. A weakness other Alphas exploited.

Now he understood why grown men abandoned kingdoms for a woman's smile.

This drugged, trembling stranger, an Omega whose name he didn't even know, had completely annihilated him. In the span of hours, she'd torn down walls he'd spent decades building and made him feel things he'd sworn were beneath him.

The mate bond pulsed between them like a living thing. Raw. Undeniable.

It should have terrified him.

Instead, it felt like coming home.

Keep her, Alex murmured, satisfied and smug in a way that made Kaius's chest tight. Even if she's just an Omega. She belongs to us.

For once, Kaius didn't argue. Didn't analyze the political ramifications or calculate the cost.

He just pulled her against him, tucking her beneath his chin like she belonged there. Like she'd always belonged there.

Her scent still clung to his skin. Her name remained unknown, a mystery wrapped in moonlight and heat. Her face, hidden in shadows.

But his world had already changed forever.

Morning hit like a sledgehammer to the skull.

Kaius jolted awake, hand reaching instinctively for the space beside him. Expecting warmth. Expecting her.

Cold sheets. No warmth. No body. Just emptiness that felt like a physical wound.

Like she'd never been there at all.

She was gone.

The realization hit him like a freight train. A surge of panic punched through him, raw and unfamiliar and completely fucking unacceptable for an Alpha of his standing.

He hadn't felt like this in decades. Not since he was a pup and his world still had the capacity to fall apart. Not since before he learned to armor his heart against disappointment.

But this? This was different. This was his mate.

He threw off the sheets and stalked through the suite like a man possessed.

Bathroom. Empty. Her scent fainter here, just a whisper of what had been.

Closet. Empty. No clothes. No sign she'd ever existed.

Living room. Empty. The silence mocking him.

No sign of her anywhere. Not even a fucking note. Not a single clue about where she'd gone or why.

Had someone taken her? Had she run?

The questions circled in his mind like vultures, each one more maddening than the last.

Alex paced restlessly beneath his skin, agitated and searching. [Find her. Bring her back. She belongs with us.]

Kaius tried desperately to conjure her face, needing to remember every detail, but all he could see were shadows and fragments. The curve of her throat in moonlight. The way she'd arched beneath him. The sound of his name on her lips.

The drug. The darkness. The overwhelming intensity of their mating-it had all blurred together, stealing the details he now craved.

It made him want to put his fist through a wall.

She was his. That hadn't changed. That would never change. The mate bond didn't lie, didn't make mistakes. The Moon Goddess had chosen her for him, and he'd be damned if he let anyone take that away.

He dressed quickly, his movements sharp and mechanical. Each button fastened with military precision.

[Ethan,] he reached out through the mindlink to his Beta.

[Yes, Alpha,] Ethan responded immediately.

[Investigate the Omega who was in my bed last night. She wasn't Sofia Walton.] Kaius's fury began to rise with each word. [Find her and bring her to me.]

[She wasn't? How dare Frostfang Pack-are they trying to declare war on us?] Ethan's disbelief was palpable through their mental connection. The audacity of anyone challenging the Wolf King was unthinkable. [Describe the Omega to me, Kai. I'll track her down immediately.]

[I don't know.] Kaius's frustration was eating him alive, Alex pacing like a caged beast beneath his skin. [It was too dark. I didn't pay attention. What about the hotel surveillance?]

[Everything was shut down yesterday, you-] Ethan clearly wanted to say more, but for the sake of his own survival, he swallowed his words. [I'll prepare to head to Frostfang Pack immediately. Since they sent the breeder over yesterday without authorization, they must know something. In half an hour I'll-]

[I want answers now,] Kaius cut him off, his Alpha authority bleeding through the mindlink like poison. [I'm going to Frostfang Pack myself to find her.]

Without waiting for Ethan's response, Kaius severed the mental connection.

The hunt was on.